Another Class I renewable power plant can’t seem to find its footing in Connecticut.
As the Connecticut General Assembly debates a moratorium on wind turbines in the state — delaying projects in Prospect and Colebrook — the state’s second biggest generator of power has struggled for two years to sell officials on a biomass plant.
NRG Energy, which operates nine generating plants in Connecticut, wants to convert an 82-megawatt natural gas and diesel peaker plant in Montville to a 40-megawatt baseload plant powered by biomass from the Northeast.
Although biomass is not loved by environmentalists as much as solar and wind, it is a Class I renewable in Connecticut, provided the wood fuel is harvested in a sustainable manner. If completed, the Montville plant would be the second largest renewable plant in Connecticut, behind a 450-megawatt landfill gas plant in Bridgeport.
With more than 25,000 megawatts of plants throughout the world, NRG Energy is the midst of updating its existing infrastructure, converting many of its older plants for cleaner, more efficient generation. The company picked its Montville plant to convert to biomass because its diesel boiler could be easily converted to biomass.
Connecticut has renewable portfolio standard calling for 20 percent of its electricity to come from renewable resources by 2020, so NRG Energy figured the state would be supportive of its project.
“The technology was right, the site was right, and the state was right,” said Jonathan Baylor, manager of development at the Montville plant.
Unlike the wind projects in Colebrook and Prospect, the Montville biomass project already is approved by the Connecticut Siting Council, the first such project approved under the state’s fast track approval process for renewables.
The project initially was expected to be operating by the middle of this year, but that date has been pushed back by at least 15 months.
Before NRG breaks ground, the company must sell the baseload power. It is seeking a contract with the state’s electric utilities, but it hasn’t finalized a deal yet. The search for a buyer has taken more than two years.
NRG wants to sign on with the state’s Project 150, an initiative by the Connecticut Clean Energy Fund to add 150 megawatts of renewable generation by providing long-term electric purchase agreements to proposed projects.
Thirteen proposals for Project 150 have been approved for Connecticut Light & Power and United Illuminating, including four biomass plants. The total includes enough power for the Clean Energy Fund to meet its 150 megawatt goal.
Because all four Project 150 biomass projects still are in various stages of development, NRG wants the Clean Energy Fund to reopen solicitation on the program so the company can submit its Montville proposal.
NRG officials are encouraged that the proposed creation of the Department of Energy and Environmental Protection will further the cause of its Montville plans. Acting Commissioner Dan Esty has been supportive of clean energy technology and wants to build Connecticut into an international leader in green generation and technology development.
“It is a good project that warrants a power purchase agreement,” NRG spokesman David Gaier said. “It is important to get the project going.”
Once a contract is in place, the Montville biomass project can break ground within 180 days, Baylor said. From that point, the construction takes 12 months. The project would create 75 jobs.
“In the world of power construction and facility construction, that is amazingly fast,” Gaier said.
The conversion essentially involves switching out equipment in the boiler so it can burn biomass. The 40 megawatts generated by wood would be baseload power, constantly feeding power onto the electric grid. It replaces 82 megawatts generated by diesel for peaker power, which only is switched on during times of high electric demand.
The Montville plant could still be used for peaker power if the grid demand calls for the increase. The biomass boiler can be switched to ultra-low-sulfur diesel fuel to create 82 megawatts of electricity, again.
“It is an amazing amount of flexibility,” Baylor said.
The biomass fuel would come within a 100 mile radius of the Montville plant, mostly for western Connecticut forests. NRG estimates the plant would create 200 jobs in the forestry and logistics industries.
A 2011 study by the Cary Institute of Ecosystem Studies in New York shows the forestry biomass in the Northeast could replace up to 25 percent of the region’s electricity generation. However, the study says that number wouldn’t be sustainable and suggested more responsible forestry practices should replace 1.4 percent of the region’s generation.
Despite its status as a Class I renewable, environmentalists prefer solar, wind and landfill gas generation plants to biomass. Depending on the type of biomass used in a plant, the greenhouse gas emissions can be worse than coal, said Roger Reynolds, senior attorney for the Connecticut Fund for the Environment.
“Biomass is still burning fossil fuels, even if they are renewable fossil fuels,” Reynolds said. “It is certainly not our first choice.”
The worst type of biomass is burning construction wood, which puts a lot of pollution into the environment.
The biomass for the Montville plant meets the Connecticut definition for sustainable biomass. That means it is cultivated and harvested in a sustainable manner, and doesn’t include finished wood products.
NRG sees its proposal as a way for Connecticut to have 40 megawatts of a Class I renewable by the end of 2012. Company officials hope they can get the state to agree and help Montville sell its power.
“Unlike solar and wind, which are intermittent resources, biomass is a baseload renewable,” Baylor said. “The time is right for the state to do this.”
